Daily Business Report-Sept. 20, 2019
The Beacon apartments in East Village opens today.
County helps to build thousands
of affordable housing units in region
As part of its ongoing effort to help ease the affordable housing crisis impacting families, seniors and those experiencing homelessness, the county and its many government and social service partners are building more than 3,000 new housing units in the region to help people find a stable place to live.
Some of the new units are partially funded by the county’s Innovative Housing Initiative, a $50 million trust fund that is actively being used to build more affordable housing to help decrease homelessness in the region.
The first seven new developments have recently opened, are under construction or in the pre-planning stage. These will generate more than 500 units that will go to:
Families experiencing homelessness; veterans experiencing homelessness and with special needs; seniors and older adults with extremely low incomes; people with developmental disabilities; people with mental illness or a history of substance abuse; domestic violence survivors.
The seven properties are located throughout the county in San Diego, Poway, San Marcos, Vista and Ramona.
The trust fund investment, when paired with other state and federal funding sources, is expected to create more than 1,800 units. These homes will remain as affordable housing units for a minimum of 55 years.
The County has also identified four excess properties that are suitable for development that will include 700 plus affordable, multi-family residential units.
In downtown San Diego, the county has invested $2,895,046 in the new Beacon Apartments project, set to open Sept. 20 in East Village. Of the 44 supportive housing units available to formerly homeless individuals, County funds will ensure that 22 are set aside for people with serious mental illness who are eligible for supportive services under the Mental Health Services Act.
Together with the Veterans Administration, the County also provides monthly rental assistance to more than 500 veterans and their families through the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing.
Additionally, the County spends more than $100 million in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funds every year to help local residents with housing subsidies. About 10,400 households and over 24,000 people each month receive housing subsidies through the County’s Public Housing Authority.
This report is from the County News Center
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Creation of a UC San Diego School of Public Health approved
The University of California Board of Regents Academic and Student Affairs Committee has approved the establishment of a School of Public Health at UC San Diego. The unanimous vote took place at the Sept. 18 meeting.
The bulk of the resources needed for establishment of the School of Public Health are existing resources that would migrate to the school; the school’s financial plan uses current resources and does not request any additional state funds or full time employees.
These resources will be supplemented in two significant ways. First, the Dr. Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Family Foundation pledged $25 million to UC San Diego in Oct. 2018 as a lead gift to usher in a new era of public health research, education and advances.
Second, UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla and Vice Chancellor Health Sciences David A. Brenner have committed an additional $7 million of new funds to support the school.
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The Kavli Foundation gifts Salk $3 million
for cutting-edge neuroscience research
The Salk Institute announced that The Kavli Foundation committed $3 million to support ongoing neuroscience research at Salk as part of the joint UCSD-Salk Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind (KIBM).
The gift—matched by an additional $3 million from Salk—will add $6 million to the KIBM Endowment, to enable faculty in neuroscience to work on the most impactful questions in the field. The Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind was established through a $15.5 million endowment commitment from The Kavli Foundation, shared between Salk and UC San Diego.
KIBM’s mission aims to support research that furthers an understanding of the origins, evolution, and mechanisms of human cognition, from the brain’s physical and biochemical machinery to the experiences and behaviors called the mind.
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Salvation Army to relocate Downtown
facilities to Otay Mesa by end of 2021
The Salvation Army San Diego Adult Rehabilitation Center (ARC) is moving its Downtown operation to Brown Field Technology Park in Otay Mesa by the end of 2021. The two-building facility will be built by San Diego-based Murphy Development Company, known for its state-of-the-art design.
The facility will include an 85,000-square-foot industrial building, which will house its warehouse, thrift store and administration office, and a 45,000-square-foot support services building, which will serve as the new ARC. The expansion will also provide an additional 40,000-square feet of single-level real estate, which is both cost and energy efficient.
“We simply outgrew our facility,” said Major Henry Graciani, general secretary of The Salvation Army Centers Command. “The Salvation Army has been in Downtown San Diego for 70 years and although we are sad to leave what we’ve known as home for so long, we are looking forward to expanding our facility to better serve the men and women in our adult rehabilitation program,”
A ground-breaking ceremony hosted by The Salvation Army and Murphy Development Company will take place Monday, Sept. 30 at 11:30 a.m. at the corner of Britannia Boulevard and Otay Mesa Road.
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Bonds refinancing saves college
district taxpayers $158 million
San Diego taxpayers will save an estimated $158.4 million thanks to a September 17 action by the San Diego Community College District (SDCCD) to retire $693 million in outstanding bonds from Propositions S and N and issue new bonds in their place at a lower interest rate.
The move to refund – or refinance – the bonds that funded a transformation of SDCCD campuses came just weeks after the nation’s benchmark bond-rating services again assigned the district their highest score possible: S&P Global assigned a rating of AAA to SDCCD’s bonds; Moody’s Investors Service assigned an Aaa rating. Both agencies lauded the SDCCD’s financial management practices and policies, reserves and low debt burden, in addition to the strength of the regional economy. Both judged the SDCCD’s financial outlook as “stable.”
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County of San Diego purchases 51 acres in Otay Mesa
to build Emergency Vehicle Operation Center
The county of San Diego has purchased 51 acres of land in Otay Mesa for $2.7 million for the development of an Emergency Vehicle Operation Center for San Diego police and fire personnel to learn how to drive. The new center will be shared by the Sheriff’s Department, the city of San Diego and the San Diego Community College District.
The new facility will replace the interim, makeshift skills track in Mission Valley that has been used for the last several years. Additionally, this sale allows Kearny Real Estate to kick off the sale of the additional 300 acres they own in East Otay Mesa.
CBRE represented the seller, Kearny Real Estate based in Los Angeles.
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A Seabees Exercise off San Diego Coast
